1904.] D. Praiit & I. H. Burkill — Om Dioscorea deltoidea, etc. 11 



soHtarii sessiles, 5-7 mm. distantes, deorsum spectantes : rhacliis 

 distincte trigona, aliquomodo zigzag: bracfceeB efc bracteolsB adsuiit,. 

 Feriantliii feminei laciuiae lanceolatae, subacutae, suboequales. Capsules 

 assurgentes, aequilougse et latse, maturas non visoe. 



Japan. Without precise locality, Buerger (mixed with Dioscorea 

 Batatas and issued by Miquel as D. japonica). 



This species is most nearly allied to D. tenuipes with which it agrees in the 

 didymous stamens and in the distinctly pedicelled male flowers : but from which 

 it differs markedly in the biseriate perianth, the lobes of which are not refracted, 

 in the rather shorter and stouter pedicels, the thicker and larger perianth-lobes 

 and in the distinctly cymnlose (not glomerate) clusters of flowers. The fraits, 

 which we have not seen ripe, when young closely resemble those of D. tenuipos. 

 AVe suspect that this may prove to be the plant for which Uline has proposed the 

 name D. Buergeri (teste Diels in Engl. Bot. Jahrb , XXIX., 260), but we have nob 

 seen specimens which could corroborate the idea. We have therefore been com- 

 pelled to find a new name for it, and have thought well to connect the name of the 

 author of the Somohu Dusets with it. 



Dioscorea enneaneura. Radix i^noi?i,. Caules glabri, siuistrorsum 

 voUibiles, minopere angalati, inerraes, virides. Folia alterna, m.em- 

 branacea, supra glaberrima subniteutia, subtus nervis et prsecipne 

 nervulis secondariis minute rugoso-cristatis, cordata, breviter acu- 

 minata, apice mucronulata, basis sinu obtuso, margine integra, 9-nervia, 

 nervis extimis profuude bifidis, nervulis secondariis distinctis subtus 

 prominulis, 6 cm. longa, 5 cm. dimidio lata: petiolus glaber, gracilis 

 supra canaliculatus, 3'5 cm, longus. Bacemi masculi simplices, axil- 

 lares, solitarii ; fiores solitarii vel bini, distincte pedicellati, sparsim 3-4 

 mm. remoti, pedicellis 2 mm. longis : pedunculus glaber, 5 mm. longus : 

 rhachis ad 4 vel 5 cm. longus : bracteae ovato-lanceolatas, ad 2 mm. 

 longae : bracteolae subsimiles, pedicellis dimidio breviores. Perianthii 

 masculi lacinise ovato-lanceolatee, biseriatae, exteriores acutas ad medium 

 incrassatae, interiores obtusse vel ti'uncatse fere ad apicem incrassatse, 

 patentes. Stamina 6, aequalia, perianthio distincte breviora ; antheree 

 didymae. Planta feminea ignota. — Dioscorea Buergeri, var., enneaneura, 

 Uline ex Diels in Engl. Bot. Jahrb., XXIX., (1900), 260, nomen 

 tantum. 



Central China. — Hupeh. A. Henry, 3641 A. 



This species is most nearly related to the plant here described as D. YoJcusai 

 It differs very markedly in the much snialler flowers which are solitary or geminate 

 and not rvmulo.se on the rhachis. 



